Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T22:17:54.960Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Protestant Calendar and the Vocabulary of Celebration in Early Modern England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2014

David Cressy
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Under Elizabeth and the early Stuarts the English developed a relationship to time—current time within the cycle of the year and historical time with reference to the past—that set them apart from the rest of early modern Europe. All countries followed a calendar that was rooted in the rhythms of ancient Europe and that marked the passage of time by reference to the life of Christ and his saints. But only in England was this traditional calendar of Christian holidays augmented by special days honoring the Protestant monarch and the ordeals and deliverances of the national church. In addition to regulating the seasons of work and worship, the calendar in England served as a reminder of the nation's distinctiveness, of God's mercies, and of England's particular religious and dynastic good fortune. Other Protestant communities, most notably the Dutch, enjoyed a comparable myth of historical exceptionalism—a replay of the Old Testament—but no other nation employed the calendar as the English did to express and represent their identity. Early modern England, in this regard, had more in common with modern America, France, or Australia (with Independence Day, Bastille Day, Australia Day, etc.), than with the rest of post-Reformation Europe.

This article deals with changes in calendar consciousness and annual festive routines in Elizabethan and Stuart England. It examines the rise of Protestant patriotism, and the shaping of a national political culture whose landmarks were royal anniversaries, the memory of Queen Elizabeth, and commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot. It opens a discussion on the vocabulary of celebration and the degree to which festivity was sponsored and orchestrated in the interest of national consolidation or partisan position. And it will show how calendrical observances that at first helped unite the crown and nation became contentious, politicized, and divisive.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , January 1990 , pp. 31 - 52
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1990

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 For the traditional calendar, see James, E. O., Seasonal Feasts and Festivals (London, 1961)Google Scholar; Homans, George Caspar, English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1941; New York, 1960), pp. 353–81Google Scholar; Wright, A. R., British Calendar Customs: England, 3 vols. (London, 1936–1940)Google Scholar. For recent historical treatments, see Phythian-Adams, Charles, Local History and Folklore: A New Framework (London, 1975)Google Scholar; and Bushaway, Bob, By Rite: Custom, Ceremony and Community in England, 1700–1880 (London, 1982)Google Scholar.

2 This theme is elaborated in Cressy, David, Bonfires and Bells: National Memory and the Protestant Calendar in Elizabethan and Stuart England (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1989)Google Scholar. Compare Schama, Simon, The Embarrassment of Riches: An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1988),pp. 69–105Google Scholar.

3 Foster, J. E., ed., The Diary of Samuel Newton, Alderman of Cambridge (1662–1717) (Cambridge, 1890)Google Scholar.

4 Macfarlane, Alan, ed., The Diary of Ralph Josselin, 1616–1683 (London, 1976)Google Scholar.

5 Latham, Robert and Mathews, William, eds.,The Diary of Samuel Pepys (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1970–1983)Google Scholar.

6 Smith, Lucy Toulmin, ed., The Maire of Bristow is Kalendar (London, 1872), p. 59Google Scholar.

7 Ornsby, George, ed., The Correspondence of John Cosin (Durham, 1869), pt. 1, pp. 19, 53, 66Google Scholar; Birch, Thomas, The Court and Times of James the First, 2 vols. (London, 1849), 1: 165Google Scholar, The Court and Times of Charles the First, 2 vols. (London, 1848), 1: 114Google Scholar.

8 Clay, William Keating, ed., Liturgical Services. Liturgies and Occasional Forms of Prayer Set Forth in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (Cambridge, 1847), pp. 30, 47-52, 443–55Google Scholar.

9 Keth, William, A Sermon Made at Blanford Forum (London, 1572)Google Scholar, fol. 20. See also Hope, Robert Charles, ed., The Popish Kingdome or Reign of Antichrist Written in Latin Verse by Thomas Naogeorgus and Englyshed by Barnabe Googe ([1570]; London, 1880)Google Scholar, fol. 44; Northbrooke, John, Spiritus est Vicarius Christi in Terra. A Treatise wherein Dicing, Dauncing, Vaine Playes or Enterludes with other idle pastimes etc. commonly used on the Sabboth day are reproved (London, 1577), p. 23Google Scholar; and “An Admonition to the Parliament” [1572], in Puritan Manifestoes, ed. Frere, W. H. and Douglas, C. E. (London, 1954), pp. 21, 24Google Scholar.

10 Hooker, Richard, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie (London, 1723), pp. 250, 249–59Google Scholar; Day, John, Day's festivals or. Twelve of His Sermons (Oxford, 1615), pp. 81–85, 108Google Scholar; Howson, John, A Sermon Preached at St. Maries in Oxford the 17 Day of November (Oxford,1602)Google Scholar, sigs. A2, B; Boys, John, An Exposition of the Festiuall Epistles and Gospel (London, 1615)Google Scholar, dedication; Andrewes, Lancelot, XCVI Sermons, 3d ed. (London, 1635), pp. 148, 204Google Scholar.

11 Neale, J. E., Essays in Elizabethan History (London, 1958), pp. 9–20Google Scholar; Strong, Roy, “The Popular Celebration of the Accession Day of Queen Elizabeth I,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 21 (1959): 88–91Google Scholar.

12 This study of parish celebration is based on eighty sets of churchwardens' accounts from twenty-two counties. Full citations are given in Cressy (n. 2 above).

13 “An acte for a publique thanckesgiving to almightie God everie yeere on the fifte day of November,” 3. Jac. I. c. I (this is an abbreviated reference to a Statute of the Realm of 1606).

14 Colfe, Isaac, A Sermon Preached on the Queenes Day being the 17 of November. 1587 (London, 1588)Google Scholar, sig. C5v.

15 Holland, Thomas, Panegyris D. Elizabethae … A sermon preached at Pauls in London the 17 of November Ann. Dom. 1599 (Oxford, 1601)Google Scholar, sigs. A2v, Bv, H3. N4.

16 Thomas, Keith, Religion and the Decline of Magic (New York, 1971), pp. 31, 49, 52Google Scholar; Raven, J. J., Bells of England (1906), pp. 26, 110–11, 280Google Scholar; Price, Percival, Bells and Man (New York, 1983), pp. 83–85, 107–29Google Scholar; Morris, Ernest, The History and Art of Change Ringing (1931; reprint, Wakefield, 1976), pp. 23, 74Google Scholar.

17 Canetti, Elias, Crowds and Power (NewYork, 1962), p. 50Google Scholar; Hampson, R. T., Medii Aevi Kalendrium, or Dates, Charters and Customs of the Middle Ages (London, 1841) 1: 299Google Scholar; Gailey, Alan, “The Bonfire in North Irish Tradition,” Folk-Lore 88 (1977): 3–34CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kingsford, Charles Lethbridge, ed., A Survey of London by John Stow (Oxford, 1908), pp. 101, 283Google Scholar.

18 Adams, G. B., “European Words for ‘Bonfire,’” Folk-Lore 88 (1977): 34–38Google Scholar; Lee, G. E., ed., “Notebook of P. LeRoy,” Publications of the Guernsey Historical and Antiquarian Society (1893), p. 25Google Scholar.

19 Historical Manuscripts Commission (HMC). Ninth Report (London, 1883), 1: 278Google Scholar; Birch, , Charles the First (n. 7 above), 1: 18, 20, 30Google Scholar; Green, Mary Anne Everett, ed., Diary of John Rous (London, 1856), pp. 56, 81Google Scholar; Roberts, George, ed., Diary of Walter Yonge (London, 1848), p. 77Google Scholar.

20 Payments for bonfires appear in churchwardens accounts. See also Bourcier, Elisabeth, ed., The Diary of Sir Simonds D'Ewes, 1622–1624 (Paris, 1974), pp. 161–63Google Scholar; Acts of the Privy Council, 1623–1625, pp. 369–70; Loomie, Albert J., ed., Ceremonies of Charles I: the Note Books of John Finet, 1628–1641 (New York, 1987), p. 95Google Scholar; Calendar of State Papers, Domestic (CSPD), 1628–29, pp. 156, 172, 175; Birch, , Charles the First, 1: 362Google Scholar; Green, , ed., p. 16; CSPD, 1640–41, p. 462Google Scholar; Hardacre, Paul, The Royalists during the Puritan Revolution (The Hague, 1956), p. 43CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Sparke, Michael, Thankfull Remembrances of Gods Wonderfull Deliverances of this Land (London, 1628)Google Scholar, sigs. A6-A6v (bound with his Crums of Comfort, 7th ed. [London, 1628]).

22 Cambridge Record Office, St. Mary the Great accounts, Holy Trinity accounts.

23 Norfolk Record Office, “City Chamberlain's accounts, 1603–1625,” fols. 397v, 398v, 415v; “1626–1648,” fols. 12v, 13, 73v, 263.

24 HMC, Ninth Report, 1:160.

25 Carleton, George, A Thankfull Remembrance of Gods Mercy. In an Historical Collection of the great and mercifull Deliverances of the Church and State of England (London, 1624), p. 217Google Scholar. See also Garey, Samuel, Amphitheatrum Scelerum: or the Transcendent of Treason: For the Fifth of November (London, 1618)Google Scholar, Great Brittans little Calendar: or, Triple Diarie, in remembrance of three daies (London, 1618)Google Scholar.

26 Hooker, Thomas, “The Church's Deliverances,” in Thomas Hooker, Writings in England and Holland, 1626–1633, ed. Williams, George H., Pettit, Norman, Herget, Winifried, and Bush, Sargent Jr. (Cambridge, Mass., 1975), pp. 68, 69Google Scholar. See also Gataker, Thomas, An Anniuersarie Memoriall (London, 1626)Google Scholar; King, Henry, A Sermon of Deliverance (London, 1626)Google Scholar.

27 Laud, William, “Diary,” in The Works of William Laud (Oxford 1853), 3: 220, 213Google Scholar; Parliamentary Scout: Communicating His Intelligence to the Kingdome (November 5, 1644).

28 Public Record Office, State Papers Domestic, SP 16/278/65. fols. 146–47. See also Goodwin, John, The Saints Interest in God (London, 1640), pp. 2, 5Google Scholar.

29 Burton, Henry, For God, and the King. The Summe of Two Sermons Preached on the fifth of November last in St Mathewes Friday Street. 1636 (London, 1636), pp. 130–32Google Scholar; Henry Jacie to Winthrop, John Jr., The Winthrop Papers (Boston: Massachusetts Historical Society, 1943), 3: 485Google Scholar.

30 Burton, dedication, pp. 1, 100, 54, 101–2.

31 Freshfield, Edwin, ed., The Account Books of the Parish of St. Bartholemew Exchange in the City of London, 1596–1698 (London, 1895), pp. 69, 74, 85, 89Google Scholar.

32 Birch, , Charles the First (n. 7 above), 2: 82, 145Google Scholar.

33 London, Guildhall Library, MS 3556/2.

34 London, Guildhall Library, MS 4524/1.

35 Bruce, John, ed., “Extracts from Accounts of the Churchwardens of Minchinhampton in the County of Gloucester,” Archaeologia 35 (1853): 441–45Google Scholar; Gregory, Ivon L., ed., Hartland Church Accounts, 1597–1706 (London, 1950), pp. 111–89Google Scholar; Dorset Record Office, PE/DO/HT/CW1.

36 Cosin, John, A Collection of Private Devotions (London, 1627)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, preface.

37 Ibid.

38 Cardwell, Edward, Documentary Annals of the Reformed Church of England (Oxford, 1844), 1: 220–21, 359, 399–400Google Scholar, 2:179, 253; Ornsby, ed. (n. 7 above), pt. 1, pp. 110, 113, 118; Laud, William, Articles to be Inquired of in the Metropolitical Visitation … for the Diocese of London (London, 1636)Google Scholar, sigs. A3v, A4.

39 Vicars, John, The Quintessence of Cruelty, or Master-peice of Treachery, the Popish Powder-Plot (London, 1641)Google Scholar, sig. A2; Ryves, Bruno, Mercurious Rusticus: Or, The Countries Complaint of the Barbarous Out-Rages Committed by the Sectaries of this Late Flourishing Kingdom (London, 1646)Google Scholar; Culmer, Richard, Cathedrall newes from Canterbury (London, 1644)Google Scholar. See also The Muses Fire-Works Upon the Fifth of November: or, The Protestants Remembrancer of the Bloody Designs of the Papists in the Never-to-be-forgotten Powder Plot (London, 1640)Google Scholar.

40 Herle, Charles, Davids Reserve, and Rescue (London, 1645), pp. 11, 12, 13, 16Google Scholar; Parliamentary Scout (October 31–November 7, 1644).

41 Sclater, William, Papisto-Mastix, or Deborah's Prayer against God's Enemies (London, 1642), pp. 13, 53Google Scholar. See also The Fifth of November, or The Popish and Schismatical Rebells. With Their Horrid Plots, Fair Pretences, and Bloudy Practices, Weighed One Against Another (Oxford, 1644)Google Scholar.

42 Crossley, James, ed., The Diary and Correspondence of Dr. John Worthington (Manchester, 1847), p. 90Google Scholar.

43 My calculations from churchwardens' accounts. See Hutton, Ronald, The Restoration: A Political and Religious History of England and Wales, 1658–1667 (Oxford, 1985), pp. 125–26Google Scholar.

44 Williams, Sheila, “The Pope-burning and Processions of 1679, 1680 and 1681, ” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 21 (1958): 104–18CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Furley, O. W., “The Pope-burning Processions of the Late Seventeenth Century,” History 44 (1959): 16–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Harris, Tim, London Crowds in the Reign of Charles II: Propaganda and Politics from the Restoration to the Exclusion Crisis (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 104, 120–23, 145, 159Google Scholar. See also The Manner of the Burning of the Pope in Effigies in London on the 5th of November, 1678 (London, 1678)Google Scholar; The Solemn Mock Procession of the Pope, Cardinalls lesuits, Fryers, etc. through ye City of London, Nouember ye 17th, 1679 (London, 1679)Google Scholar; and London's Defiance to Rome, A Perfect Narrative of the magnificent procession and solemn burning of the Pope (London, 1679)Google Scholar.

45 See, e.g., Lloyd, William, A Sermon Preached before Their Majesties At Whitehall. On the Fifth day of November, 1689. Being the Anniversary-day of Thanks giving For that Great Deliverance From the Gunpowder-Treason, And also the Day of His Majesties Happy Landing in England (London, 1689)Google Scholar; and A form of prayer, with thanksgiving … fifth day of November (London, 1690)Google Scholar.

46 Sacheverell, Henry, The Perils of False Brethren both in Church and State (London, 1709)Google Scholar; Holmes, Geoffrey, “The Sacheverell Riots: The Crowd and the Church in Early Eighteenth-Century London,” Past and Present, no. 72 (1976), pp. 55–85Google Scholar.